Railway stations

Railway stations present a particular challenge for traditional speaker technology. Directional speakers often produce poor sound quality, with some passengers straining to hear what's being announced and others finding it far too loud. Hard surfaces result in echoes and nearby businesses and residents suffer from noise pollution, further compounding the problems that traditional speaker technology suffers from.

FeONIC Transport's Audio Drive technology eliminates all of these problems, providing a crisp, clear sound output that passengers can hear comfortably, yet that does not cause noise pollution for adjacent residents or businesses.

PA announcements – that can be heard clearly by everyone!

FeONIC Audio Drive can be discreetly sited on station signage, ceilings, windows, panelling or canopies – in fact, any hard resonant surface – to transform the surface into fantastic speakers without compromise of design aesthetics or audio sound quality. It provides a clear, high-quality, sound (which exceeds international standards on speech intelligibility) that can be heard by all passengers without discomfort or straining.

Audio Drive doesn't create noise pollution for adjacent residents and businesses – the sound travels only the required distance. Reducing noise pollution is increasingly important for public transport providers: at a recent London Mayor’s Question Time the Mayor stressed that London Underground was working to remedy such problems as part of the Mayor's “Keep Noise Down” campaign.

The ability to project sound only for the required distance is especially useful at larger stations, where announcements intended for passengers on one platform may confuse passengers on other platforms if they can hear them. Audio Drive eliminates this problem.

Localised PA announcements

Audio Drive can be very effectively used for localised announcements; for instance, for warning passengers that they are nearing the end of escalators.

Emergency evacuation announcements

Voice alarm systems are meant to inform and instruct passengers in the event of an emergency.

Their use is based on strong evidence that people often ignore normal audible and visual alarms but will obey a voice command. Normal alarms also have extremely limited information content (on or off), whereas voice alarms can be used to deliver a wide range of potentially life-saving information.

However, for a voice alarm system to be effective, it must be intelligible. FeONIC Transport’s Audio Drive technology ensures that voice alarms are much more intelligible than traditional speaker systems and can be heard in every part of a railway station – potentially saving lives.

Marketing and advertising

Audio Drive can be used to turn surfaces into marketing and advertising opportunities. It's currently being trialled on a metro system in just that role.

Many advertising  panel sites on transport premises across the world are now carrying moving images. Adding FeONIC audio to drive sound from the front of the glass screen will produce a new form of media which media companies can deliver for their clients. Glass screens emiting audio without speakers and in a controlled fashion will help generate significant revenues for media companies and the owners of the transport infrastructure.